Lauterbach speaks of "historical failure" in the Corona crisis - and makes a prognosis for herd immunity

SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach makes the rich states serious allegations in the Corona crisis and names a point in time for herd immunity in Germany.

Tutzing - The corona situation in Germany has been easing for a few weeks.

The nationwide seven-day incidence has now fallen below 10, on Saturday morning it was 9.3 according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

The number of corona patients in intensive care units has fallen below 1000 for the first time in eight months.

More than half of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine against the coronavirus.

Corona: Lauterbach accuses rich countries of "historical failure"

But there are significant differences worldwide, especially with corona vaccinations.

The SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach sees a "historical failure" of the rich states.

"We have built up vaccination capacity that was tailored precisely to what we need ourselves," he said on Saturday at an online conference of the Evangelical Academy in Tutzing.

"We do not have any additional vaccine production capacity for the poorer countries", so his criticism.

As a result, people in Southeast Asia, Africa or Latin America are largely unprotected and exposed to an increasingly dangerous corona virus.

Because the more people are vaccinated, the more aggressive the virus has to be in order to spread further.

“This is a historical failure of the wealthy countries,” said Lauterbach.

Corona in Germany: Lauterbach makes herd immunity forecast

For Germany, he expects herd immunity "by mid-September".

"80 percent of adults will then be double vaccinated", so the prognosis of the SPD health expert.

“My big concern, however, is that our children are not protected.” The Delta variant will also prevail in Germany.

It is already widespread in the UK.

Lauterbacht therefore considers EM games in front of spectators in London to be “unacceptable”.

The delta variant is much more dangerous than all previous corona variants.

“One percent of infected children will have to be treated in hospital” - and Lauterbach fears that long-term consequences of Covid disease could affect children.

Overall, with an excess mortality rate of around four percent, Germany has so far come through the Corona crisis much better than other neighboring European countries. However, the Federal Republic failed at one point in the pandemic. “In the second wave, many people died unnecessarily,” Lauterbach clarified.